Lye i. e. a known and wilful falsehood because it depended as I shall shew by and by upon matters of fact which he could not but know whether they were true or false So that if these facts were false he was a wilful Deceiver in affirming them and building his Doctrines upon them But how could he be reasonably suspected of lying whose whole life was such an illustrious example of goodness and unspotted integrity of manners For it is to serve either their Covetousness or Ambition their Envy or their Revenge that men turn wilful Deceivers none of which Vices nor so much as the least appearance of them are visible in the life of Iesus but their contraries continually shone through the whole course of his Actions and if none of those Vices ever appeared in him that could any way tempt him to lye and deceive it is not only unjust but unreasonable to suspect him Thus by the sanctity of his life he not only instructed men in his Father's Will but also confirmed them in the belief of it IV. As a Prophet also he sealed his Doctrine with his bloud which is the highest pledge that any Mortal can give of his truth and integrity While he was preaching his Doctrine to the World he foresaw all along that he must either recant it or die for it and therefore it is not imaginable that he would have proceeded to divulge it had he not believed it to be true For what man in his wits would ever publish a lye to the world when he knows beforehand he must either recant it with shame or assert and maintain it with his bloud But such was the nature of his Doctrine that he could not believe it to be true unless it were so because the truth or falsehood of it depended upon matters of fact wherein he could not be deceived namely that he was the Son of God that he came down from him and had dwelt with him in unspeakable glory and happiness from the foundations of the world Iohn 17.5 upon the truth of which facts depended the Authority of his whole Doctrine but whether these were true or false he could not be ignorant if he were in his wits which no body can doubt that considers the exactness of his Conversation and the wisdom and dependence of his Doctrine Now if he were first in Heaven and was sent down from thence to preach to the World there is no doubt to be made of the truth of his Doctrine and whether he were or no he could not be ignorant if he were not there he not only died with a wilful lye in his mouth which is not reasonably imaginable of a person of his unspotted Piety and Vertue but he also published it to the World in his life notwithstanding he knew it to be a lye and foresaw he must either dye for it or shamefully recant it which is not imaginable of a person of his wisdom and soundness of mind So that considering that he could not but certainly know whether his Doctrine were true or false his sealing it with his bloud is an unanswerable attestation of the truth of it and accordingly his bloud is made a great Testimony of the truth of his Gospel 1 Iohn 5.8 and S. Paul tells us that he witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate 1 Tim. 6.13 that is in affirming before Pilate that he was the Son of God and King of the Iews even when he certainly foresaw that he should forfeit his life by it he took it upon his death that he had preached nothing but the truth to the world V. As a Prophet he also instituted an Order of men to publish and declare his Doctrine to the World. Whilst the gift of Prophecy continued in the Iewish Church there were certain Schools called the Schools of the Prophets in which men were trained up under some great and eminent Prophets who were the Masters of those Schools in the knowledge of divine things and the practice of Piety and Vertue that so being educated in wisdom and goodness they might be the better disposed and qualified to receive the Prophetick influx and deliver God's Messages to the people For out of these schools God ordinarily called those persons whom he imployed and sent forth to prophesie to their Kings and People and accordingly our Saviour when he began to revive the spirit of Prophecy in his own Person which from Malachi till then which was for the space of four hundred years had been utterly extinct immediately erected a School of Prophets consisting of his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples to whom as it seems he afterwards added thirty eight more Vide Acts 1.15 over whom he himself presided as the great Master Prophet in order to the instructing their minds in all divine wisdom and forming their manners by the strictest rules of Piety and Vertue that so when ever occasion required they might be duly qualified to Prophesie to the World. And accordingly as those ancient Masters of the Prophetick Schools had ordinarily their Scholars personally attending on them and upon emergent occasions did frequently send them forth as their Ministers upon Prophetick Messages Vid. 2 Kings 9.1 and 1 Kings 20 35. so our blessed Saviour kept his in ordinary attendance about him that so they might hear his Doctrine and see his Miracles and observe his Conversation and upon particular occasions he sent them forth as his Ministring Disciples to Prophesie in his name Vid. Luke 10.1 And out of this Prophetick School of our Saviour the Primitive Prophets of our Religion were called and sent forth to preach the Gospel through the World. For that his Gospel might be taught through all succeeding Ages to the end of the World he first erected this sacred School and when he was to leave it he deposited a standing Commission in the hands of his twelve Apostles whom he ordained to preside in it in his room by which he impowered them not only to ordain and send forth the present Disciples of it viz. the Presbyters and Deacons to teach his Gospel to all Nations but also to derive down the same authority to their Successors through all Generations to come For as the Father hath sent me saith he so send I you Iohn 20.21 and as he sent them so they still sent others and so in an uninterrupted line of Succession hath this Commission been handed and derived from one Generation to another the Bishops who next succeeded the Apostles in presiding over the Sacred School not only still ordaining other Bishops to succeed them but also still admitting other Presbyters and Deacons who are as the Disciples of that School to Minister under them in the propagation of the Gospel Thus Christ as the Great Prophet of the Church hath erected a standing Prophetick School or Order of men authoritatively to teach and declare his Gospel to all succeeding Ages of the World. VI. And lastly As he was a Prophet also he sent his
his own Fables or that the Author of the Seven Champions should have laid down his life in the defence of S. George's killing the Dragon would not all the World have concluded them incurably distracted But as for the Apostles their excellent Writings are a sufficient demonstration that they were men of very sound intellectuals and therefore tho we should suppose them to be so wicked as to love lying for its own sake we cannot suppose them to be so mad as to love it better than their own lives as they must necessarily do if their Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection were false But supposing that one or two of them should have proved so frantick yet it is incredible that so many hundreds of men and women should all agree together at the same time in the same mad project viz. to throw away their lives for no other purpose but only to cheat and abuse the World and that no one of them should be induced by all the hopes and fears that were set before them to confess and discover the mad conspiracy When they began to report the Story they could not but foresee the consequence of it viz. that they must either recant it and thereby proclaim themselves Impostors to the World or else lay down their lives for it So that had they known it to be false it would have been a Prodigy of Impudence in them and Folly together not only without hope of benefit but within prospect of a certain ruin to have divulged a known lye to the World and under the severest Persecutions to have persisted in it without the least regret of Conscience or concernment for their own ease and safety There never was the like instance among men and I dare say there never will be so long as men love themselves and continue in their Wits and to imagine that of the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection of which there is no parallel example among mankind is an Argument that we have much more inclination than reason to be Infidels This therefore is plain that the Witnesses of Christs Resurrection gave as great a pledge of the truth of their Testimony as it was possible for mortal men to do and if those men may not be believed who attest a thing upon certain knowledge and seal it with their blood there is no credit can be given to any human Testimony because a mans life is the greatest security that he can possibly give for his honesty VI. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that the Witnesses do give some certain sign and token that what they testifie is true and this the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection did For in token that what they said was true they themselves wrought sundry Miracles in his name for so we read of the Apostles that they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following Mar. 16.20 and that with great power i. e. miraculous works the Apostles gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus Acts 4.33 and also at Iconium the Lord gave Testimony to the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands Acts 14.3 And the same was done by S. Stephen at Ierusasalem Acts 6.8 and by S. Philip at Samaria Acts 8.6 7. and by S. Paul at Ephesus Acts 19.11 And S. Paul assures us That from Ierusalem and round about unto Illyricum the Gospel had been preached by him with mighty signs and wonders and by the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.19 all which things being recorded in an Age wherein if they had been false they might easily have been disproved it had been the wildest project in the world for the Apostles to have pretended to them had they not been notoriously true for they must needs think that all the World being prejudiced against them would be sure to keep a very strict and watchful eye on them and that if upon the severest enquiry they were at any time taken tripping in this their pretence of working Miracles their fraud will soon ring through all the World which must unavoidably prejudice their Cause a thousand times more than all the Miracles they pretended to could advance it and for men that had the eyes of all the World upon them falsly to pretend to work such innumerable Miracles as they did and this not in corners but in publick view and to name the places where they wrought them and where they knew there were thousands that could and would certainly detect and disprove them would have been the most prodigious instance of impudence and folly together that ever was acted by men in their Wits But so notoriously true was the matter of Fact that their most inveterate Enemies amongst both Jews and Gentiles have not the confidence to deny it although indeed they attributed it even as the Jews did our Saviours Miracles to the power of Magick for so in their Talmud Tractat de Idol c. 1. the Jews celebrate S. Iames the Apostle as eminent for the gift of Miracles by whom the Nephew of Rab. Samuel being bit of a Serpent would not be cured because every Disciple of Jesus was wont to heal in his name And Lib. Sabbat Ierosol they tell us of a Son of Rab. Iose who having swallowed Poyson was cured by a Christian in the name of Jesus And as for the Heathen Iulian himself he confesses that S. Paul did very wonderful things for he says that he was the greatest and most expert Magician that ever was vid. Cyril Alex. lib. 3. and the same he pronounces of S. Peter also id lib. 9. So also Celsus frequently charges the Christians with doing their mighty works by the power of some Demon adding a fiction of his own viz. that they had received from Christ certain Magical Books by which they were instructed to perform all their Miracles vid. Origen cont Cels. p. 302. and several other places which is a plain confession that such Miracles were commonly performed by Christians But that they did not perform them by any confederacy with evil Spirits as these bad men affirm is evident because one of their greatest and most common Miracles was dispossessing these evil Spirits of mens Bodies and their own Temples and Oracles For the truth of which they often provoke their Adversaries in their Writings and Apologies to come and make experiment of it Thus S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Demetrian Proconsul of Africa O that thou wouldst but hear and see when the Devils whom thou worshipest are adjured and tortured by us and with the spiritual Rods and Torments of our Words are ejected out of the Bodies they possess when howling and roaring in a human voice they confess the Iudgment to come Do but come and see whether these things we say are not true And a little after If thou wilt come saith he thou shalt see those whom thou worshipest for Gods stand
fourfold first from base and humble into glorious bodies 511. secondly from earthly and fleshly into spiritual and Heavenly 513. thirdly from weak and passive into active and powerful 514. fourthly from corruptible and mortal into incorruptible and immortal 517. They will differ in degrees of Glory proportionably as they differ in degrees of perfection 518. Of the woful change which the bodies of the wicked will undergo 521. The third and last of these regal Acts of Christ is his judging the World where first the thing is proved that he shall judg the world 523. Secondly an account is given of the signs and fore-runners of his coming to judgment 524. Thirdly the manner and circumstances of his coming 526. as first the place from whence he is to come ibid. 527. secondly the State wherein he is to come 528. thirdly the Carriage on which he is to come 530. fourthly the train and equipage with which he is to come 533. fifthly the place to which he is to come 536. Fourthly the process of this judgment 538. And first of the judgment of the righteous wherein is implied first their citation or summons 539. secondly their personal appearance 540. thirdly their trial 54â— fourthly their sentence 543. fifthly their assumption into the clouds of heaven 545. The Iudgment of the wicked implies also first their citation 547. secondly their personal appearance 548. thirdly their trial 549. fourthly their sentence 551. fifthly their execution 552. SECT XII Concerning Christs surrendring his Kingdom Christ hath a twofold Kingdom viz. His Essential Kingdom which is co-eternal with him and can never be surrendred and his Mediatorial Kingdom which is founded upon a solemn compact and agreement with the Father and this is the Kingdom which shall be surrendred p. 556 c. At the conclusion of the day of Iudgment the whole Mediation will cease the end of it being fully accomplished 557. An account of the cessation of the Mediatorial Kingdom from 1 Cor. 15.24 25 26 27 28 558. the whole passage resolved into five propositions ibid. First that the Kingdom there spoken of was committed to him by God the Father 559. secondly that he is to possess this Kingdom so long and no longer as till all things are actually subdued unto him 560. thirdly that during his possession of this Kingdom he is in a state of subjection to the Father 561. fourthly that when he hath delivered it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now 562. fifthly that he being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall be thenceforth immediately exercised by the Deity 565. SECT XIII Of the Reason and Wisdom of this Method of Gods governing sinful men by his own Eternal Son in our Nature Five reasons of this Method assigned First that he might govern us in a way more accommodate to this degenerate state of our nature 567 c. secondly that he might the more effectually cure and prevent the spreading contagion of Idolatry 573 c. thirdly that thereby he might give us the more powerful encouragement to Obedience 582. fourthly that he might the more powerfully excite our Gratitude and Ingenuity 585. fifthly that he might thereby give us the more ample assurance of our future Reward 588. SECT XIV That Jesus is this Mediator of whom we have been treating Three ways by which God hath testified that Iesus is the true Mediator First by Prophesie secondly by Voice from Heaven thirdly by Miracles 591. The last of these only insisted on as being that to which our Saviour most commonly appeals 592. This together with the goodness of his Doctrine a most certain evidence of his being the Mediator ibid. The Miracle of his Resurrection was that which both our Saviour and his Apostles most insisted on 594. The reality of this attestation capable of being proved only by credible Testimony 596. The Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection accompanied with all the most credible circumstances which are six 597. First they who testified it were most certainly informed whether it were true or no 598. secondly there was a concurrence of several Witnesses to the truth of the Fact 600. thirdly there was no visible reason to suspect their honesty and integrity 603. fourthly there was no apparent motive to induce them to testifie falsly 609. fifthly they gave the greatest security for the truth of what they testified 612. sixthly they gave certain signs and tokens that what they testified was true 614. What a most convincing argument this of Miracles and particularly of Christs miraculous Resurrection was of the truth of his being the Mediator shewn in four particulars First that it was the most proper and convenient Evidence 622. secondly that it was the most certain and infallible Evidence 625. thirdly that it was the plainest and most popular Evidence 629. fourthly that it was the shortest and most compendious Evidence 631. OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE PART II. VOL. II. CHAP. VII Of the necessity of acknowledging Jesus Christ to be the one and only Mediator between God and Man in order to our Leading a Truly Christian Life HITHERTO we have treated of the common Principles of Religion in General but as for this last it is the great Principle of Christian Religion strictly so called as it is distinguished from the Religion of Nature and as such is properly the Religion of the Mediator as containing only the Doctrines which concern the Mediator and the Duties which result from those Doctrines and owe their Obligations to them both which being taken away all the remaining Religion is purely Natural and Moral So that this Principle we are now treating of contains in it all that Religion which is strictly Christian without believing of which and practising upon it we cannot be truly said to lead a Christian Life how well soever we may live For there is no doubt but upon the Motives and Principles of natural Religion a man to whom Christianity was never sufficiently proposed may upon due consideration and a hearty endeavour reclaim himself to a very pious and vertuous life as it is apparent many of the Heathen Philosophers did but no man can be pious or vertuous in the Christian sence who is not so upon the Christian Obligations for the Principles from and by which we act are the very life and soul of our Religion and therefore as it is the Rational Soul that specifies the Man a Rational Animal so it is our Christian Principles that specifie our Religion Christian Religion Wherefore though the Piety and Vertue of an Heathen may be materially the same with that of a Christian yet it is impossible it should be formally Christian unless it be animated and acted with the belief of Christianity So that if we leave out this and practise only upon the above-named Principles we are at best but wise and honest Heathens and there is nothing in all our Religion but the simple Dictates of mere natural reason 'T is
Saviour viz. by raising him from the dead Secondly To shew what an excellent convincing argument this is of the Truth of his Doctrine or Mediation I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth and reality of this miraculous attestation which God gave to our Saviour viz. by raising him from the dead which being a matter of Fact independent from all necessary causes is capable of no other proof to those who were not Eye-witnesses of it but only that of Credible Testimony Thus that Iulius Cesar was killed in the Senate-house is a matter of Fact the truth of which is acknowledged by all the World and that man would be accounted little better than mad that should make the least doubt of it and yet we have no other way of proving this but only by the concurrent Testimony of credible Historians which being as great an evidence as the matter is capable of is as much as any reasonable man can require to induce him to believe it For although Testimony be the only evidence by which matters of Fact can be proved yet it is such an evidence as hath force enough in it to induce any reasonable man to believe its proposals and there are ten thousand things which we do as firmly assent to upon the evidence of Testimony as to any propositions upon the evidence of Mathematical Demonstration If therefore the Resurrection of our Saviour be but sufficiently attested that is as good an Argument of the truth of it as the nature of the thing will bear and when it is made but as apparent that a thing is as it could possibly be if it really were there is no farther proof of it can be reasonably expected and if notwithstanding this men will not believe it is impossible that any reason should convince them but in this Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection there is as much evidence and Credibility as there can be in any Testimony whatsoever For to give a Testimony the utmost force of Credibility six things are required First That they that give it should be certainly informed of the truth of what they do attest Secondly That there should be a concurrence of a sufficient number of Witnesses Thirdly That there should be no visible reason to suspect their truth and integrity Fourthly That there should be no apparent Motive to induce them to give false Witness Fifthly That they give some great security for the truth of what they say And Sixthly That they also produce some certain sign or token of the reality of their Testimony And when all these circumstances do concur in a Testimony they render it as highly credible as it is possible for a Testimony to be Now in that Testimony which we have of our Saviours Resurrection there was as I shall shew in the particulars a full concurrence of them all For I. They who testified it were certainly informed whether it were true or no for they declare that they were Eye and Ear Witnesses of it Acts 3.15 and relate at large the familiar conversation they had with him after his Resurrection Acts 10.41 and they tell the Story of it with so many circumstances that it is impossible they should be deceived For at his Resurrection they find the Stone rolled away from the mouth of his Sepulchre and no body therein although it was guarded by Soldiers so that it was impossible for any body to steal him away and that it was his own body wherein he arose and no aerial Phantasm evidently appears by what he did to convince S. Thomas who would not believe unless he might put his hand into the hole of his side and see the print of the Nails that pierced his hands to which our Saviour readily condescended and so far were the Apostles from being over-credulous that when he appeared to them after his Resurrection it is said that they suspected him to be a Spirit or walking Ghost and to convince them of their mistake he was fain to appeal to the judgment of their senses handle me and see me saith he for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luk. 24.39 and afterwards more fully to satisfie their yet scrupulous minds he eat and drank in the midst of them ver 43. Now the more suspicious and incredulous they were at first the greater evidence it is that they were throughly informed of what they testified that there was an undeniable evidence in the thing else how could it have satisfied such scrupulous and incredulous persons and that they were far from being willing to be abused themselves or from having any design to abuse the world And that their outward sense was not imposed upon by the strength of their Imagination is evident in that he conversed with them forty days together which was too long a time for their senses to mistake an image of their fancies for a reality For how is it conceivable that so many persons as pretended to see him after his Resurrection should for forty days together imagine that they saw him heard him eat and drank with him when in reality all this Scene of things was nothing but a dream or specter of their own fancies that their fancies should create and represent a person to them frequently appearing to them preaching and instructing them giving out Commissions and administring holy Ordinances to them that their fancies should draw them out to the Mount of Olives after a Specter that was visible no where but upon the Stage of their own Imaginations and there represent it carried up into Heaven on a Cloud Surely if they were in their Wits it was impossible for them to believe such a train of things to be real had they been only the images of their fancies and yet that they were in their Wits is as apparent as the Sun both from their unanimous consent in the relation of the Fact with all its circumstances and from those wise and sober Writings which they left behind them which abound with excellent Morals solid and coherent Reasonings strong and powerful perswasions without the least intermixture either of flat impertinence or ranting Enthusiasm which is a plain demonstration that they were certainly informed concerning the matter of Fact which they testified whether it were true or false II. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is the concurrence of several Witnesses of which we have a remarkable instance in this Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection For if to those five hundred Brethren and upwards who as S. Paul tells us saw our Saviour after he was risen 1 Cor. 15.6 you add the Congregation of the Disciples he appeared to when he baffled the Infidelity of S. Thomas together with those great Assemblies that saw him in the Mount of Galilee and upon Mount Olivet from whence he ascended it is not improbable but that there were some thousands of Persons that saw him after his Resurrection among all whom we find the most exact agreement both
resolved right or wrong not to believe it So that this way of Christs proving his Doctrine by his Miracles and particularly by his Resurrection being the best and most proper if we will not believe it upon this evidence we are incurable Infidels whom no reason in the World can convince or persuade II. This evidence of Miracles is the most certain and infallible Medium to prove the truth of any pretence to Revelation For if God give a man power to do Miracles in token that what he says is true he thereby sets his own Seal to the truth of it and if we are satisfied that the Miracle was wrought by the Power of God and yet will not believe the Doctrine it seals we do in effect give the lye to God himself for a real Miracle wrought to confirm a Doctrine gives as great a certainty of the truth of that Doctrine as we can have of the truth of God which is the foundation of all the certainty in the World because if once it be granted that God may work a Miracle to attest a lye we can have no security of his truth but for all that we know every thing that he saith or doth may be an Imposture and if so for all we know he may have deceived our faculties too and then there is nothing can be certain to us The Miracles of Christ therefore and especially this of his Resurrection gives us as great a certainty of the truth of his Doctrine as we can have of any thing For that he was raised by the power of God is evident because he was really dead his heart was pierced and the vital bonds were broken which rendered him utterly incapable to raise himself and supposing that there be some Agent in Nature besides God that was powerful enough to raise him yet we are sure the Devil would not do it because as was shewn before he must thereby do a thing infinitely contrary to his own temper and apparently destructive to his Interest and Kingdom nor would any holy Angel have done it without a special command and Commission from God which is the same thing as if God himself had done it immediately So that it 's plain Christ's Resurrection must be effected either by the immediate Will or by the immediate Power of God and whether it was one way or t'other 't was a most certain evidence of the truth of his Doctrine because it cannot be imagined that the God of truth would either way have raised him from the dead had he been an Impostor since in so doing he must have taken the most effectual course to impose a Cheat upon mankind For whilst he was alive he promised to rise again the third day and gave this as the great Sign to the World whereby they should know that he came from God upon the hearing of which all unprejudiced minds especially considering the nature of his Doctrine had abundant reason to conclude thus with themselves If this Man make good his word we can no longer doubt but that he was sent from God for to be sure he cannot rise unless God raise him and it can never enter into our thoughts that the God of truth will raise him on purpose to delude and deceive us When therefore he was actually risen they could not without being guilty of the most unreasonable obstinacy make any farther scruple of his truth and veracity There was about six hundred years ago a certain Iew called El David who gave out that he was Christ and drew a great many Proselytes after him upon which he was apprehended and brought before an Arabian Prince who asked him what Miracle he could do to convince him that he was not an Impostor to which he answered Sir Cut off my Head and in a little time you shall see me alive again which he said to prevent some greater torments which he feared would be inflicted on him for deluding the People Whereupon the Prince replied A greater sign than this thou canst not give and therefore if after I have beheaded thee thou recoverest to life again both I and all my People and all the World sure will acknowledge thee to be a Messenger from God and presently he commanded him to be beheaded and there was an end of the Cheat and so there would doubtless have been of the Christian Religion if Jesus had not been raised from the dead for he said just as this El David did Kill me if you please and when you have done so you shall see I will live again and upon this I stake all the credit of my Doctrine And therefore since it came to pass according to his word we have all the Reason in the World to resolve with that Arabian Prince to believe and acknowledg him to be sent from God. For if there be a God that loves sincerity and truth as we are sure there is we are equally sure he will not conspire with an Impostor to cheat and delude the World and yet this he must have done had Jesus been a deceiver when he fulfilled this miraculous sign of his Resurrection upon which he suspended all the credit of his Doctrine So that now we have the same certainty of the truth of our faith as we have of the truth of our knowledg for the truth of our knowledg supposes that there is a God whose Goodness will not suffer us to be deceived in those things which we clearly apprehend and the truth of our faith supposes that there is a God whose Goodness will not suffer him to deceive us in such things as he hath given us sufficient reason to believe for he who gives me a sufficient reason to induce me to believe a false Proposition is guilty of seducing me into a false belief and therefore since God in raising Christ from the dead hath given us a sufficient Argument to induce us to believe that he sent him it necessarily follows either that he did send him or that he is guilty of deceiving and abusing us III. This evidence of Miracles is the plainest and most popular to confirm a Revelation If the Principles of revealed Religion were to be proved by natural Reason and Philosophy the Arguments of it would be too thin and subtile for vulgar capacities and men would never be fit to be Catechized into their Religion till they had been trained up in the Schools and there instructed in the intrigues of Logick and Discourse for the generality of men are capable of no other notices of things but what are immediately impressed upon them by the objects of sense nor have they skill enough so exactly to compare simple terms as to connect them into true Propositions and from these to deduce their true and natural Consequences These are things that require far more leisure and skill than Mens Education and Affairs will ordinarily afford them so that had there not been some plainer and easier way found out to prove the truth of Christianity
than this it had been a Religion fit only for the Schools of Philosophers and the Vulgar who are not capable of close and strict discourse and have neither time nor skill enough to trace the footsteps of truth through all the intricacies of reasoning and discourse must have been damned to eternal infidelity and this without doubt was one main reason why the Moral Philosophy of the Heathen had so little influence upon the People because the Arguments by which its Principles were proved and demonstrated were too fine and subtile for vulgar apprehensions insomuch that there were but few in comparison that could comprehend the strength and force of them and in all probability as little effect would Christianity have found in the World had it not been proved and demonstrated by such evidence as is adapted to all capacities As for instance the immortality of the Soul is one great Principle of the Christian Religion but now had we no other way of proving this Principle than by Philosophical Arguments how impossible would it have been to convince the Vulgar of the truth of it For first we must have proved that the Soul is immaterial by shewing that its operations such as Free-will and Reflection are incompetent with Matter from hence we must have inferred that it is immortal by shewing that what is immaterial hath no quantitative extension and consequently is incapable of division and corruption Now I beseech you what Iargon what unintelligible Gibberish would this appear to vulgar understandings What an insignificant noise would such fine Speculations make in the ears of an honest Plowman But now the miraculous Resurrection of our Saviour is so plain and intelligible a proof of it that every man may apprehend the force of it that hath the free use of his own faculties for it is but arguing thus and the thing is clearly proved Christ told the World whilst he was alive that the Soul is immortal and that there are everlasting habitations of weal or woe prepared for her in another World and in token that what he said was true he promised that the third day after his death he would rise again which he could never have verified had not God given him power to do it and to be sure God would never have given him this power had not his saying been true wherefore since God did impower him to rise again it is plain that he thereby approved the truth of his saying and justified his Doctrine to the World. This is such a plain and intelligible way of arguing that the shallowest minds may easily apprehend the force of it wherefore since God designed Christianity to be a Religion as well for the Vulgar as for the more refined and elevated understandings it was highly reasonable that the way of proving its Principles should be plain and intelligible to all capacities of men IV. And lastly This evidence of Miracles is the most short and compendious way of proving the truth of Revelation One reason why the moral Philosophy of the Heathen had so little influence on the Vulgar was because their way of proving the Principles of it was so long and tedious for they were fain to prove them by parcels and when they had convinced their Auditors of the truth of one Proposition they proceeded to another and so they were fain to prove them all singly and apart by distinct and different arguments which was so tedious a way that the vulgar had not leisure enough to attend to so great a variety of reasonings nor yet capacity enough to retain them but he that works a real Miracle in token that such a Doctrine is true proves it all at once and needs not trouble himself to demonstrate one Proposition after another for by giving a miraculous sign of the truth of such a Doctrine God doth openly approve every Proposition contained in it because it cannot be supposed that the God of truth would approve any Doctrine in the gross if any part or Proposition of it had been false since in so doing he must necessarily have abused our understandings and wittingly betrayed us into a false belief which to affirm of God is equally absurd and blasphemous When therefore God raised our Saviour from the dead he did by that one Act openly avow the truth of his whole Doctrine and proclaim to all the World that every Article in it is as true as truth it self So that now we need not trouble our selves to hunt out for several Arguments to prove the several Articles of our Faith for this one Argument serves instead of all that God by sundry Miracles and particularly by raising Jesus from the dead hath given Testimony that the Doctrine which he taught is a true revelation of his Mind and Will to the World. And thus you see what a clear and excellent evidence Christs Miracles and especially his Resurrection is of the truth of his Doctrine No wonder therefore that the Apostle doth so much prefer it above all other evidence as we find he doth 1 Cor. 2.4 For saith he my speech and my teaching was not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of spirit and of power that is I did not go about to convince ye with Rhetorical Harangues or fine Philosophical Reasonings but I clearly demonstrated the truth of what I preached by the Miracles which through the power of the Divine Spirit I wrought amongst you So that whether we consider the certainty of Christs Miracles but especially of his Resurrection or the powerful evidence which they give to his Doctrine I doubt not but upon an impartial view of the whole it will appear that we have all the reason in the world firmly to assent to the truth of Christianity and consequently to this Article which comprehends it all that Iesus Christ is the Mediator between God and Man. FINIS NOTES Page 35. Line 18. a FOr thus Tertullian hunc i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno determinat factitorem qui cuncta in dispositione formaverit eundemque fatum vocari Deum animum Iovis Apologet. 36 Pam. i. e. this Word Zeno declares to be the Maker of the World who formed all things in a due temper and is called Fate and God and the Soul of Iupiter And the Ancient Orpheus calls him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the divine Word and immortal King Câ—em Strom. l. 5. p. 60 So also Numenius the Pythagorean as he is quoted by S. Cyril cont Iul. lib. 8. calls the Father the First and the Word the Second God. So also Plotinus Enn. 5. l. 5. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of this divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. and this nature is God a second God and as for the Jews it is evident from the Septuagint and Philo and the Chaldee Paraphrase that by the Word they meant a divine
And therefore to satisfie us in this also after he had abode some time upon Earth after his Resurrection and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel he carried them out to Bethany where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them he ascended before their eyes into Heaven upon which it is said Luke 24.52 That they worshipped him and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them never in this World to be seen by them more that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father there to intercede in Person for them and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and interest lay even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death eternal and who after such an instance of love they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf and in a word who being the only begotten of the Father whose precious Bloud he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the World could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask or for his Father to bestow So that now if we heartily comply with him as Mediating for his Father with us we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as Mediating for us with his Father since he doth not Mediate with him by a second hand or at a distance but in his own Person in that very Person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father as being his only begotten Son but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And accordingly upon this consideration the Apostle founds the hope of Christians 1 Iohn 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable for we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins VI. And lastly Another thing which the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator is that upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the divine and Omnipresent Spirit Personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. When he went up to Heaven there to Mediate for us with God he did not thereby abandon his Mediation for God with us but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual Being to act for him whom he calls the Advocate or as we render it the Comforter and the Holy Ghost and who was to Mediate with Men in his behalf even as he Mediated with them in the behalf of his Father and to Advocate for his Authority as he Advocated for his Father's For so he tells his Ministers whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his Authority in the World I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate i. e. to plead for and inforce your Ministry in my behalf whose Ministers you are that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. I will not leave you comfortless or without an Advocate I will come to you that is by this Spirit of Truth who is to be my Vicegerent even as I am my Father's Iohn 14.16 17 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary Article I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence Secondly I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediation Thirdly I shall shew what it is that he hath done and still continues to do in order to the effecting this Mediation First What this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence I answer it is the third Person in the Tri-une Godhead For that besides the Father and the Son there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Gentile and Iewish and is most plainly and expresly asserted in holy Scripture which third Person is known in Scripture by the name of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of the Lord. For that the Holy Ghost so often named in the New Testament is the same with that Spirit of the Lord so much celebrated in the Old S. Peter expresly asserts 2 Pet. 1.2 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost from which words it is evident that this Holy Ghost whom S. Peter here mentions is the very same with that holy Spirit or Spirit of the Lord by whom as we are told in the Old Testament the ancient Prophets were inspired vid. Isa. 63.11 2 Sam. 23.2 Mich. 2.7 and abundance of other places and accordingly S. Peter applies that Prophecy of Ioel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh to that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Acts 2.16 17. but this is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. which could not be true if Peter's Holy Ghost were not the same with Ioel's spirit of the Lord. But it is most certain that the Holy Ghost whom S. Peter and the New Testament so often mention was in the first place a real Person and not a meer Quality as the Socinians vainly dream For so we every where find personal properties and actions attributed to him Thus he is said to speak Acts 28.25 and Heb. 3.7 yea and his speeches are frequently recorded so Acts 10.20 The Spirit said unto Peter arise therefore get thee down and go with them for I have sent thee and Acts 13.2 The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and how can we without horrible force to such plain historical relations which ought to be literal and not figurative attribute these speeches to a meer Vertue or Quality And elsewhere he is said to reprove the world Iohn 16.8 and to search into and know the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and to divide his Gifts
to his Church was nothing but what he himself had first received from the Father so that though it was from the Father that the Son had his authority to send the Holy Ghost yet it was from the Son that the Holy Ghost had his Mission immediately And accordingly you may observe that after Christ's departure from this World the Holy Ghost acted immediately under Christ as the supreme Vicegerent of his Kingdom For next and immediately under Christ he Authorized the Bishops and Governours of the Church and constituted them overseers of the flock of Christ Acts 20.28 it was he that chose their Persons and appointed them their Work Acts 13.2 and gave them their several Orders and Directions Acts 15.28 Acts 16.6 in all which it is evident he acted under Christ and still continues to act as his supreme Substitute and Vicegerent and accordingly he is stiled by Tertullian the Vicarious vertue or power as he was the supreme Vicar and Substitute of Christ in mediating for God with Men so that now the Holy Ghost is subordinated to the Son not only by vertue of his procession from him together with the Father but also by vertue of his being purchased and obtained by him of the Father by his meritorious Death and Intercession I proceed III. To shew what it is that this Holy Spirit hath done and still continues doing in order to the effectuating this his Mediation For there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and some things which he hath always done and will still continue doing to the end of the World of both which I shall give some brief account in order to the fuller explication of the Ministry of the Holy Ghost under Jesus the great Mediator First therefore there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and of this sort were those extraordinary operations he performed in order to the Planting and Propagating Christ's Gospel in the World upon and after that his Miraculous Descent of which we read in Acts 2. For when Christ was departing from his Disciples into Heaven he ordered them to stay at Ierusalem and not to undertake that mighty work of Planting his Gospel through the World till they were endued with power from on high Luke 24.49 which power from on high was no other than that miraculous assistance which upon his Descent the Holy Ghost did afterwards vouchsafe them upon which Order they return to Ierusalem and there continue till the day of Pentecost fasting and praying together in an Upper Room when all of a sudden the Holy Ghost descended upon them in a visible body of bright shining fire and endowed them with all those Heavenly powers which were requisite to qualifie them for the propagation of Christ's Gospel through the World. For as they were to be the first Planters of the Gospel it was requisite First that they should be able to speak the several Languages of those Nations to whom they were to preach Secondly that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrines which they were to preach Thirdly that they should be able to give the most convincing evidence of the truth and divinity of their Doctrines Fourthly that they should be conducted by Infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry against all which necessities the Holy Ghost abundantly supplied them For First He inspired them with the gift of Languages without which they must have spent a great part of their lives before they could have been capable of preaching the Gospel to the World in learning the several Languages of the several Nations they were to preach to which must have very much retarded the progress of the Gospel And therefore the Holy Ghost upon this his miraculous Descent did in an instant infuse into them the Habit of speaking several Languages insomuch that all of a sudden and without any Rules of Grammar or previous instructions they were heard to speak to the great astonishment of their Auditors in the fifteen several Tongues of fifteen several Nations Acts 2.4 c. And though they were immediately dispersed abroad in the World and some of them into remote Countries whose names perhaps they had never heard of yet still where-ever they came they were inspired with the Language of the Country which they spake as freely as their own Mother Tongue And this was a vast advantage to them in their Ministry because they were not only enabled by it to preach the Gospel to all Nations but were enabled in such a manner as gave a mighty confirmation to their Doctrine For their very gift of speaking being a miraculous effect of divine power was an undeniable demonstration that what they spake was divine Secondly The Holy Ghost fully and clearly instructed them in the Doctrines which they were to preach and this was no more than what was necessary For what they preached who were the first Planters of the Gospel was to be the standard of truth and falshood to all succeeding Generations and therefore it was highly necessary that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrine of the Gospel that so their Successors in all Ages might safely relie on their Authority But whilst they were under the Personal Discipline of our Saviour who instructed them by Humane Methods i. e. by proposing his Doctrine to their Ears and through their Mediation to their Vnderstandings it is plain they made but very slow and slender improvements For after all his pains with them they continued very ignorant of some of the most material Articles of Faith and at best they had but gross Apprehensions of the nature of Christ's Kingdom and of the ends and reasons of his Death and were very diffident even of his Resurrection and the reason was that Christ taught them as a man doth a man i. e. by words which are only the audible Images and Representations of things which being liable to misapprehension and oblivion some of them they utterly foâ—got and some of them they grosly misunderstood But when the Spirit came upon them a wondrous Light broke all of a sudden into their Vnderstandings by which they discovered farther into the Gospel Mysteries in an instant than they had done under all our Saviour's teaching For though the Spirit taught them no new Doctrines but did only repeat and explain to them what our Saviour had taught them before for he shall receive of mine saith Christ i. e. of my Doctrine and shall shew or explain it unto you yet it is evident he taught them much more effectually than our Saviour For he spoke not to their Ears but to their Minds and represented things more nakedly and immediately to their understandings he conversed with their spirits even as Spirits do with Spirits without involâ—ing his sense in articulate sounds or material representations but objected it to them in its own naked light and characterized it immediately on their understandings And as he immediately
he officiate effectually between them unless he performs all those good Offices on both sides which considering their states as they stand related to one another are necessary to create a mutual accord and agreement between them Now the state of God as he stands related to us is that of a supreme and absolute Sovereign over blind and rebellious Subjects who were so far depraved and degenerated as that we neither understood his Will nor were at all disposed to obey it Wherefore that he might officiate effectually for God with us his ignorant and rebellious Subjects it was necessary First that he should perform the Office of a Prophet in revealing God's Will and pleasure to us of which the whole Race of Mankind was so deplorably ignorant Secondly That he should perform the Office of a King in exacting our obedience to God and subduing our stubborn Wills to his heavenly pleasure so that in officiating for God with us it was necessary that he should both teach us as God's Prophet rule us as God's King. And then the state of man as it respects God is that of a most guilty and criminal Subject who by a continued course of Rebellion had justly and highly incensed and provoked his Sovereign Lord against him in which state of things it was highly necessary that in officiating for us with God our Mediator should in the first place render him some great and honourable reparation in our behalf such as he in his infinite wisdom should think meet to exact for those high and manifold affronts and Indignities which we had offered to his Sacred Person and Authority For without some such reparation he could not well have admitted of any reconciliation with us without prostituting his own Authority and rendring it cheap and vile in the eyes of bold and insolent Offenders Now the greatest reparation he could make for us was to take our punishment on himself by offering up his own life to God as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And then secondly it was necessary that having made this reparation for us he should thereupon become our Advocate and plead his Sacrifice to God in our behalf that for the sake thereof he would be so far propitious to us as to admit us upon our unfeigned repentance to his grace and favour Both which are comprehended in the Priestly Office which consists as I shall shew hereafter in atoning God with Sacrifice So that the particular Offices which the respective states of God and Man require of him that Mediates between them is to teach and rule for God and to expiate and Advocate for men But for the better understanding of these particular Offices it is necessary we should briefly consider the Method and Oeconomy of them and explain in what Order and Manner the Mediator hath proceeded and advanced in the exercise and administration of them Which in short was thus by Commission from God the Father he came down into this World where the first Mediatorial Office he undertook was that of Prophet in the discharge whereof he made a full revelation of God's Mind and Will to the World. And having performed this at least so far as was needful in his own Person he next enters upon the first part of his Priestly Office which was to make an expiation for the sins of the World by the Sacrifice of himself and this being finished he a little after proceeded to the other part which was to make an Oblation of his Sacrifice to God in Heaven and in vertue thereof to Advocate for us and solicite our Pardon and admission into the divine favour upon the performance of all which and as a glorious reward of it he was admitted to sit down at the right hand of God in the Throne of Regal Authority next and immediately to the Father For so Phil. 2.8 9 10. the Apostle tells us He humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the Cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every Knee should bow And in Heb. 12.2 his sitting down at the right hand of the Throne of God is the consequence of his enduring the Cross and despising the shame of it So that in short the Order and Method in which he proceeded in his Mediatorial Offices was this First he Prophesied then he made expiation for our sins on the Cross then presented his Expiation in Heaven and therein began to Advocate or intercede for us and then he received that Regal Authority by which he is to reign till the Consummation of all things And therefore for the more clear and distinct explication of these particular Offices it will be most proper to treat of them in the same order wherein they are placed in the divine Oeconomy beginning first with the Prophetick thence proceeding to the Priestly and thence to the Kingly Office. SECT III. Of the Prophetick Office of Iesus Christ. COnsidering the manifold Errors and the deep Ignorance in which Mankind was almost universally lost and bewilder'd it was absolutely necessary that he who Mediated for God with men in order to the reconciling them to him should in the first place take care to inform them of the Nature and instruct them in the Will of God without which it was impossible for them so much as to know what it is to be reconciled to him And accordingly this was the first Mediatorial Office that our Saviour undertook viz. to Prophesie to the World i. e. to reveal and publish the Gospel to Mankind wherein the Nature and the Will of God and the Method of our Salvation are plainly stated and described so far forth at least as it is necessary to our reconciliation to him Upon which account he is called the Light of the World the Sun of Righteousness the Way and the Truth and the bright Morning Star all which refer to his Prophetick Office which is the fountain of all that spiritual light that shines through the World. For long before our Saviour was born it was foretold of him that he should execute the Office of a Prophet so Deut. 18.15 The Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken which prophecy S. Peter applies to our Saviour Acts 3.22 And upon this and other Prophecies of the Old Testament it is evident it was a general anticipation among the Iews in our Saviour's time that the Messias should be a Prophet For thus upon Christ's feeding five thousand men with five Loaves and two Fishes they cried out This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world John 6.14 so upon his restoring the Centurion's Servant they were amazed and glorified God saying that a great Prophet was risen up among them Luke 7.16 And so also his own Disciples stile him A Prophet mighty in deed and
of Christ's Ministers for the preaching that Gospel to the World which he had taught them and of the Way and Method of their procedure in it in despite of all those oppositions they met with And as for the Epistles they are partly Comments and Enlargements on our Saviour's Actions and Discourses and partly Decisions of such Controversies as arose among them according to the Analogie of that Faith which our Saviour had before declared and revealed but in all these Writings there is no one Article of Faith but what was before declared and defined in the Sermons and Discourses of our Saviour And then as for the Primitive Writers who lived in or near the Apostolical Age and upon that account had much greater advantages of understanding the truths of Christianity than we who live at this remote distance they are at best but genuine Commentators on that Doctrine which our Saviour first taught and his Apostles afterwards more fully explained to the World but as for declaring any new Doctrines or defining new Articles of Faith that is an upstart invasion of Christ's Prophetick Office which they never so much as pretended to So that the Prophecy of our Saviour is the Fountain from whence all Christian truth is derived as containing in it a compleat and entire Sum of God's Will and Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind II. As he taught the whole Will of God so he proved that what he taught was the Will of God by sundry miraculous operations which are the great evidences by which God always demonstrated the truth of his divine revelations and which of all others are the most popular easie and convincing proofs that can be given of them For as for the Prophets themselves they might be very well assured that their Enthusiasms were divine by the vehement impressions they made on their minds which were such as did as fully satisfie them that they were from God as the strokes of the Sun beams on our eyes do us that it is day at Noon but no other man could be satisfied that what they spoke was by divine inspiration without either being divinely inspired himself or confirmed by them in the belief of it by some miraculous sign of the Divine Power which latter was the way by which the Prophets of Old did ordinarily confirm their Doctrines when they delivered any thing new to the World. And accordingly though our Saviour had all along sufficiently confirmed his Doctrines to the Iews by the Authorities of the Old Testament yet this confirmation of his Miracles he more particularly insists on and appeals to thus Iohn 10.25 The works saith he that I do in my Father's name they testifie of me And again vers 37 38. If I do not the works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the works and herein he places the inexcusable sin of their unbelief that they persisted in it notwithstanding he had done among them the works which none other man did John 15.24 And indeed well he might considering the miraculous powers he exerted among them for how often did he even before their eyes subpoena in whatsoever was in Heaven or Earth or Sea to give their testimony to his Doctrine he made the Angels minister to him and the Devils tremble and fly before him and the Plants and Animals the Winds and Seas obeyed him and Health and Sickness and Life and Death and the Grave did by their obedience to his Word bear witness to the truth of his Doctrine By his powerful voice he shook the Heavens and sent down the Holy Spirit on his Followers he tore the Rocks and opened the Graves and at his command the bodies of his Saints arose and which was more miraculous than all he raised himself the third day after his Crucifixion and having finished his Course upon Earth ascended Triumphantly into Heaven in the view of a numerous assembly of Spectators All which were such illustrious demonstrations of his being inspired by God as nothing but an incurable infidelity could ever be able to withstand But whâ—t proper arguments these Miracles of his weâ—e to convince men and what evidence there is oâ— the truth and reality of them will be shewn at lâ—rge hereafter and therefore it will be needlâ—ss at present to insist any farther on this particular III. Therefore as a Prophet he gave us a perfect Example of Obedience to that which he had declared and proved to be his Father 's Will. He did not only reveal his Father's Will to mens Ear 's in his excellent Sermons and Discourses but he also set it forth before their Eyes in the glorious Example of his Actions For what he taught in Words he exemplified in Deeds and his Conversation was a lively Picture of his Doctrine wherein all that Humility and Self-denial that Temperance and Iustice that Charity and Heavenly-mindedness thâ—t invincible Constancy of Mind and generous Contempt of the World which he taught Mankind were drawn to the life and expressed in their fairest colours and proportions So that what he taught in Words he taught over again in Actions and explained his Rules still by his own Example for his Conversation was all along a most genuine Comment and Paraphrase on his Religion by casting their eyes on which those who did not fully understand the sence of his Precepts by his Words might very easily expound it by his Actions For there is no doubt but a good Example doth far more effectually instruct than good Precepts because it doth not only express the same vertues that the Precepts enjoyn but also expresses them with much more grace and Emphasis For whereas Precepts and Discourses of Vertue are only the dead Pictures and artificial Landskips and Descriptions of it a vertuous Example is Vertue it self informed and animated alive and in motion exerting and exhibiting it self in all its natural Charms and Graces And therefore as we know a man much better when we see himself alive and in action than when we only see his Picture so we understand Vertue much better when we see it living and acting in a good Example than when we only behold it described and pictured in vertuous Precepts and Discourse So that by giving us a compleat and perfect Example of Piety and Vertue the blessed Jesus hath far more effectually instructed us in our duty than by all those heavenly Sermons which he preached to the World because his whole life was nothing else but a continued series of living and moving Vertue or rather it was nothing but Piety and Vertue acting their several parts in their own proper Forms and exhibiting themselves to the Eyes of men in all their natural Graces And as the Holiness of his life did most effectually instruct men in their duty so it could not but very much confirm them in the truth of his Doctrine for it is certain if his Doctrine were false it was not a simple Error but a downright
sinner in the World hath a door of access set open to him by the Intercession of Iesus through which he may freely enter and with an humble confidence apply himself to God for mercy and for grace to help him in the time of need Thus by the Mediation of our Saviour God hath taken off that Imbargo which mens guilts had laid upon their commerce with Heaven and made way for a free and generous intercourse between himself and his Creatures V. And lastly This way of communicating his Favours to us through the Mediation of Christ is most apt to assure our diffident minds of God's gracious intentions to perform to us all the good things which he hath promised us upon our performing the conditions of them It is true if God had only promised them we should have had abundant reason to believe him on his own bare word without any farther security but alas to be diffident and distrustful is the inseparable property of guilty minds and so great is our guilt and ill desert and so inestimable are the blessings and favours which God promises us that when we reflect upon both and compare them together it so confounds our Reason and astonishes our Faith that notwithstanding all the security God hath given us we can hardly believe without trembling and diffidence So that had not God given us some other security besides that of his own bare word and promise it would have extreamly puzled our Faith to believe that God sincerely intended such mighty goods for such unworthy Subjects For when ever we reflected on our own guilt and ill-desert we must have looked upon God as our adverse Party as one that was concerned only for his own right and honour to retrieve from us that natural homage we owed him and had hitherto unjustly detained from him and we should have been but too apt to suspect that when once he had obtained this end of us he would be much less concerned to make good our right to his promise than he was to recover his own to our duty Now although this had been a most unreasonable suspicion after the God of Truth had passed his word to the contrary yet there is nothing so unreasonable which guilty minds are not apt to suspect and therefore out of great condescension to this pitiable infirmity of his sinful Creatures God thought meet upon his entrance into a New Covenant with us not only to oblige himself thereby to bestow on us the most inestimable favours if we performed our part but also to put the making good of his Obligation into a third hand namely into the hand of a Mediator who by the nature of his Office is as much obliged to secure our right as God's as being equally concerned for both parties as well that God should make good to us what he hath promised as that we should make good to him what he requires So that now we have no longer to do with God immediately as our adverse party but all our intercourse with him is by a Mediator who by his Office is obliged to be on our side as well as God's and to see that what he hath promised be performed to us as well as that what he requires be performed by us And hence our Saviour is called the Mediator of the New Covenant and the Mediator of a better Covenant which expressions plainly bespeak him to be an Authorized security on both sides for the mutual performance to each other of what they stand respectively obliged to by this Covenant and hence also he is called the Sponsor or surety of a better Covenant because he stands engaged for the performance of both Parties so far as it was possible for him to oblige them thereunto for us to oblige us by the strongest motives to repent and persevere in well-doing and for God to oblige him by the most powerful pleas to pardon and crown us with eternal life the later of which he performs by his Intercession wherein by continually pleading that precious bloud which God hath long since accepted in consideration of our pardon and eternal life he continually obtains Power and Authority from God to bestow on us the blessings he intercedes for So that now we have not only God's Word but also the Suretiship of our Saviour to depend on who not only stands engaged to us for God that he shall perform all his promises to us but hath also right and power upon the just claim of his Sacrifice to oblige him to perform them So that as God in condescension to the pitiable diffidence of guilty minds hath been graciously pleased to seal his Promises with his Oath so that he might leave us no umbrage of distrust he hath superadded to both the collateral security of a Mediator for the performance of them of a Mediator that hath purchased of him all the blessings he hath promised us and paid for them with his own bloud and so is not only obliged to sue for them at the Throne of his grace but also Authorized to claim them at the Tribunal of his Iustice and in a word of a Mediator in whose hands he hath actually deposited all the blessings he hath promised us and made his Executor in trust for the performance of his bequests to the heirs of promise So that now to distrust the performance of his Promise to us is not only to suspect God's Word and his Oath which are altogether as sacred and inviolable as his God-head but also to question the security and arraign the fidelity of a Mediator that died for us that purchased for us with his own bloud all the blessings which God hath promised us by vertue whereof he not only rightfully claims them of God but hath also actually received them in our behalf So that now we cannot be defeated of them unless he will with-hold them from us and he cannot withhold them from us without violating his trust since it is for us and in our behalf that God hath deposited them in his hands and can we imagine that he who was so true and kind a friend to us as to lay down his life to purchase them for us will be now so unkind and unfaithful together as to detain them from us when God hath intrusted him with them in our behalf and fully impowered and authorized him to bestow them upon us Having therefore the security not only of God's Promise and Oath but also of our Saviour's kindness and fidelity for the performance of God's part of the New Covenant if we perform ours what an infinite encouragement must it give us to forsake our sins and return to our duty For now if we repent we have no more reason to question God's pardoning and forgiving us if we persevere to the end in well-doing we have no more cause to doubt of his crowning us with eternal happiness than we have to distrust our present being and existence If therefore the most ample assurance that
in the matter and circumstances of what they did attest which had it not been true must have been morally impossible For how could so vast a number of men have so punctually agreed in the same Story had it been a lye Especially when they were so narrowly sifted so craftily examined and cross examined as doubtless these men were or at least would have been had there been any just ground to suspect them by the Jewish Magistrates who were all of them profest Enemies to our Saviour and his Doctrine For had their Testimony been forged it is not imaginable how they should foresee what Questions the Magistrates would propose to them nor consequently how they should agree what Answers to return to their several Interrogatories so that when they came to be examined they must of necessity have thwarted and contradicted one another at least in some circumstances of time or place or the like by which means the whole forgery must have soon been unravelled and the credit of it for ever dasht out of countenance But that no such thing ever hapned is evident by the credit which their Testimony found even among those who had the best opportunities of examining whether it were true or false for the truth of Christs Doctrine depending upon the truth of this Story of his Resurrection there can be no doubt but the Jewish Magistrates whose interest made them Enemies to Christ would not have been wanting had they thought it feasible to try all ways to disprove the truth of it and if they did not no other reason can be given of it but only this that the truth of the thing was so notorious that it would have been Ridiculous for them to attempt the disproving it but if they did it had been a very easie matter for them had it been a lye to have detected it for the number of the Witnesses being so great and the Jews having every day opportunity of conversing with them they might have easily trapt them in their relations it being impossible that among a great number of conspiring Impostors there should be always an exact harmony and agreement For suppose that such a Story as this were told in London that a certain man dwelling at Westminster and pretending himself to be the Son of God and the lawful Heir of the Crown of England had preached up a new Religion requiring all people under pain of damnation to embrace his Doctrine and submit to his Government and that as a sign of the truth of all this he had publickly declared that three days after his death he would rise again whereupon the last Friday was seven night he was put to death by the Magistrates and notwithstanding he was buried and his Sepulchre dammed up with a huge Stone and a guard of Soldiers set to watch it left his Proselytes should steal him away yet the Sunday following he arose and hath since been seen by several hundreds if not some thousands of the neighbourhood many of whom had touched and handled him eat and drank and conversed familiarly with him among whom there was Peter such a one Thomas such a one and Iohn such a one naming some twenty or thirty persons well known among the neighbours who could give a more particular account of the matter and tell the names of most of the persons that were eye-witnesses with them why now it cannot be supposed but that as soon as ever this formal rumour began to spread especially if it found credit among the multitude and the pretended witnesses of it should be so bold as to go and assert it before the King and Council as the Apostles did before the Rulers of the Jews I say it cannot be supposed but that care would be taken that the matter should be immediately sifted and the several neighbouring Justices required to call these Witnesses to account who by pumping and examining promising and threatning them could not fail of extorting the truth from them in a very little while For it is impossible but they must have found them faltering in the relation of their Story and counter-witnessing one another Iohn would have told it with this Circumstance and Peter with the contrary and Thomas would have thwarted and contradicted them both so that when they came to compare their several relations with one another in all probability they would have found as great a confusion among them as there was in the language of the Bricklayers of Babel And therefore though at first perhaps the Story might have seemed plausible and a great many credulous people might have believed it yet every day would have rendered it more suspicious and the truth must at last have triumphed and prevailed but yet though the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection were thus sifted and examined over and over their relation every one day got ground and credit even in Ierusalem it self where the thing was transacted and where every one might easily inform himself concerning the credit of the Relaters and the circumstances of their relation insomuch that forty days after it was so far from being dashed out of countenance that at one Sermon of S. Peters there were no less than three thousand persons converted to the belief of it and so it still grew and increased till at last in despite of all the wit and malice of its opposers it was imbraced and acknowledged throughout all the World which is an undeniable evidence of the exact agreement there was in the testimony of the several Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection III. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is when there is no visible reason to suspect the honesty and integrity of the Attestors which circumstance did also concur to credit the Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection For that the first testifiers of it were men of a clear and unsuspected honesty will appear to any man that seriously considers either the Doctrine which they taught or the Genius of their followers or the manner of their testimony or the success it had among those who were best able to satisfie themselves whether they were honest or no. First as for their Doctrine there is nothing can be more contrary to lying dissembling and Hypocritical reservation it strictly requires plainness and simplicity of speech and that our words should be the Images and Interpreters of our minds it brands and stigmatizes all deceit and falshood with a most infamous Character and irrevocably consigns all wilful Lyars to the miserable portion of the Father of Lies If then they believed their own Doctrine it is not to be imagined they would ever have defended it with frauds and impostures and whether they believed it or no it is hardly supposable that they would have so loudly declaimed against dishonesty had they been at least visibly dishonest themselves since by condemning it in others they must have libelled themselves and imblazoned to the World their own shame and infamy And then secondly As for the
genius and temper of their disciples and followers it 's plain that there never was any thing more open and sincere for such was the ingenuous simplicity of the Primitive Christians that they thought it a disparagement to be put to their Oaths thinking it sufficient for every good man to give this assurance of his truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak truly and when they were most severely examined by their bloudy persecutors concerning their faith they never either denied or concealed it counting it a most impious thing to dissemble the truth and though when they were questioned they could easily have either denied or evaded it yet they scorned to live upon such base terms to be beholden to their hypocrisie for their lives yea so conspicuous was their Honesty to all the World that the Heathen themselves were forced to acknowledge it For so Pliny in the account which he gave the Emperor Trajan of the Christians tells him That after the strictest enquiry he could make of them even of those who had renounced Christianity he found this to be the greatest fault they were guilty of that they used harmlesly to meet to worship Christ and at those meetings to bind themselves by a Sacrament that they would not do any wickedness that they would not steal nor Rob nor commit Adultery ner falsify their words nor with-hold any thing wherewith they had been intrusted where ever it were required at their hands Such was the temper of the immediate Disciples of the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection and is it likely that the Scholars would have proved so honest had they not been taught by the Example as well as by the Doctrine of their Masters For to be sure had the Apostles been dishonest their immediate Disciples must needs have known something of it and being acquainted with it they would doubtless have resolved either not to continue their disciples any longer or else to have imitated them in all their secret Cheats and Knaveries and so from the Masters to the Disciples dishonesty would have been propagated from one generation to another but since the contrary happened it 's plain that the first Propagators were men of very honest and sincere minds which will yet further appear if we consider thirdly the manner of their Testimony which they delivered with the greatest plainness and simplicity of speech the greatest freedom and assurance of Spirit and the greatest particularity as to all its circumstances they never went about to involve their sense in ambiguous words or to recommend it to the World in a pompous stile in pedantick flourishes or flattering insinuations which is the way of all Impostors but as men that were well assured of the truth of what they said they exposed it to the World in the most naked and simple expressions and so left it to recommend it self they did not whisper their Testimony in corners as if they were either affraid or ashamed to produce it in the open light but with the greatest confidence and assurance they published it in the midst of Ierusalem yea and before the Sanhedrin it self where if it had been false 't was impossible but it should be detected and whereas 't is the way of Impostors to reserve themselves in generals knowing that should they descend to particulars 't would be hard for them to avoid discovery or contradiction the Apostles did not only report a general story of Christs Resurrection but related it with all its most minute and particular circumstances nor did they Change or alter any one of them upon different examinations before different Examiners but still persisted with the greatest constancy to themselves and harmony with each other so that if ever there might be any thing gathered of the temper of persons from the particular manner of their discourses we may certainly discern the greatest fidelity in the Apostles in the manner of their expressing themselves to the World. But then in the fourth and last place the credit which they found among those who were the best able to satisfie themselves whether they were honest or no is a further evidence of their fidelity for had they been men of known honesty it is not to be imagined that they could ever have obtained so much credit in a place where they were so intimately known and among persons with whom they every day conversed with the greatest openness and freedom especially considering how contrary their Testimony was to the genius and interest of those who gave credit to them many of whose hands had been imbrewed in the blood of our Saviour by which they were obliged in their own vindication so far as in them lay to disprove the story of his Resurrection because if that proved true it proved them guilty of the most monstrous impiety that ever was acted viz. the murder of the Son of God. And is it likely that the Murderers of our Saviour would ever have believed the story of his Resurrection which was so clear an evidence of his innocency and their own guilt had they had any reason to suspect the veracity of those that attested it and yet in despite of themselves great numbers of them were forced to believe it although as soon as they did so they were pricked at the heart with the sense of their horrid impiety and forced to cry out in a bitter Agony of Conscience Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved and as for those of them who had no hand in his murder to be sure they were greatly prejudiced against the belief of his Resurrection because upon that depended the truth of his Doctrine which plainly contradicted a great part of that Religion in which they had been educated and of which they were infinitly zealous and therefore to be sure they would never have given credit to it had they not had undeniable evidence of the truth and integrity of those that testified it especially when it was so easie for them to satisfie themselves about it For 't is not imaginable they would ever have entertained so ungrateful a story but upon the most strict enquiry into the credit of its relators and if upon enquiry they had found the least flaw either in them or in their testimony if they could have convicted them of any dishonest practices for the time past or catched them tripping or contradicting one another in what they testified at present they would soon have made the World ring of it and the Iews who were dispersed through all the neighbouring Nations would have divulged to all the World their fraudulent practices and posted them up where ever they came for infamous Knaves and Lyars which must have infallibly blasted the credit of their testimony and caused it to have been hissed out of the World for a fulsom Imposture Wherefore since no such thing ever happened but contrariwise the credit of their report of Christs Resurrection did in despite of all the wit and malice of its opposers
every day spread and increase even in Ierusalem it self where the thing was acted and where the reporters of it lived and that not only for a few days or months but from year to year even till Ierusalem it self was destroyed since I say all this is so evident what greater argument can we desire of the truth and integrity of those that attested it And supposing them to be honest their testimony must be true because it was not matter of opinion in which it is possible for the wisest men to be mistaken but matter of Fact of which they had certain information from their own senses and he who says that he saw such a thing and it 's evident that his senses were not imposed on lies against his own conscience if it be not true that he saw it IV. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that there is no apparent motive to induce the Attestors of it to testifie falsly For whether they are honest or no we cannot well suppose that in a matter of importance they will testifie falsly without some great motive inducing them thereunto but as for the witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection had they not been certain of the truth of it they could have no imaginable motive to induce them to attest it for they could never hope to reap the least advantage from it either here or hereafter not here for their Lord had told them beforehand that if they would be his Disciples they must suffer persecution and they themselves could not but foresee that by testifying his Resurrection they must infallibly alarm all the World against them because the Doctrine which they confirmed by it was extremely opposite both to the present Religion and Interest of the Iews and to the common Theology of the Gentiles and that therefore by going about to establish it they must in effect proclaim War against all the World and consequently expose themselves to the utmost Rigor and Severity that the wit and malice of men could invent or inflict which must be a very sorry motive sure to induce men in their wits to undertake the propagation of a known Imposture But perhaps it may be thought they did all this for the glory and reputation of being the founders of a new Sect. But from whence I beseech you could they promise themselves success not from their Master Iesus who if their testimony was not true they could not but know was still detained under the power of the grave not from God whom if they testified falsly they were conscious they wickedly belyed in suborning his power and veracity to bear witness to a falshood not from the force and charms of their own Eloquence or Sophistry for that they pretended not to not from their Riches for their Staves and Scrips were all the Treasure they carried with them nor from any Authority or Power they had or ever were like to have for how could such poor illiterate persons as they ever expect to arrive to an Authority great enough to contest with all the power and wisdom of the World which was armed against them in a word not from any proneness they found either in Iews or Gentiles to imbrace the Doctrine which they designed by this their Testimony to confirm and assert that being every where gainsaid and opposed by the interests and affections of both and if their Testimony was not believed as 't was very unlikely it should if it had not been true what could they expect but to be branded to all posterity as a company of infamous Cheats and Impostors So that unless they had been assured that their testimony was true they had all the reason in the World to expect that it would prove the most fatal and unprofitable Lye that ever was invented or broached among mankind since it was so far from promising them any worldly advantage that it visibly exposed them to all the miseries and calamities of human life And then if they knew this Story of Christs Resurrection which they attested to be a Lye they had a great deal less reason to expect any advantage from it in the World to come for either they believed that Religion which they sought to confirm by attesting this story or they did not if they did not how could they hope to fare ever the better in the other World for endeavouring to propagate a false Religion in this if they did how would they hope to be made happy hereafter by telling a Lye for that Religion which excommunicates Lyars out of the Kingdom of Happiness Since therefore if their testimony had been false they could expect to reap no advantage from it in either World doubtless they would never have been so mad as to assert and attest it had they not known it to be true for what man in his wits would ever tell a lye that hath no reason to expect any other fruit from it but only to die for it here and to be damned for it hereafter V. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that the testifiers of it do give some great security for the truth of what they say and therefore it is required by human Laws that in all great matters of Fact the Witnesses should give the security of their Oaths or of some great pledge to be forfeited by them in case their Testimony prove false But never did any men give greater security of their truth than the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection for they sealed their Testimony with their Blood and rather chose to undergo the most witty and exquisite torments than to recant any part or circumstance of what they had seen and testified concerning it For of all the Apostles who were the chief Witnesses of it there was only one that escaped a violent death and he as the Ecclesiastical Story tells us had not been delivered from it but by a Miracle And doubtless those other Disciples who saw and conversed with our Saviour after he was risen and together with the Apostles bore witness of it to the World did proportionably run the same fate And how is it imaginable that so many men should all turn so mad together as to lay down their lives for a pledge of the truth of a Story which they knew to be all a mâ—re cheat and imposture Some men indeed have suffered Martyrdom for professing Propositions that were false but then they thought them to be true but no man in his wits ever died in the defence of an Assertion which he knew to be false But as for the testifiers of our Saviours Resurrerection they did all of them witness upon certain information and did assuredly know whether their Testimony were true or false so that if Christ did not rise as they reported they died in the defence of a known Lye which is such a piece of folly as doth exceed all instances of extravagance Suppose that Aesop should have died a Martyr to
was upon Earth were plain demonstrations of his being sent from God and therefore to these as I shewed before he frequently appeals in his excellent Disputations with the unbelieving Iews and when Iohn Baptist sent to inquire of him whether he were the Messias or no he returns no other Answer but this Go and shew John those things which ye see and hear that the blind receive their sight and the lame walk the Lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them Matt. 11.4 5. But his own Resurrection being the greatest Miracle that he ever performed to this both himself and his Apostles did most commonly appeal insomuch that S. Paul 1 Cor. 15.14 says That if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and our faith vain because this being the Grand Miracle on which Christ staked the credit of his whole Doctrine if this had failed there had been no reason to give any Credit to any thing that he taught The Resurrection of Christ therefore is a certain evidence of the truth of his Doctrine only as it was the greatest of his miraculous works it proved his Doctrine no otherwise than his other Miracles did but it was the highest proof of it as it was the greatest of his Miracles Wherefore to shew what an excellent proof of his Doctrine his Resurrection was I shall endeavour to shew that Miracles in general and particularly this of Christs Resurrection are the best evidences of a Divine Revelation that the nature of the thing will bear and this I shall do by shewing First that this is the most proper and convenient Evidence Secondly That it is the most certain and infallible Thirdly that it is the plainest and most popular Fourthly That it is the shortest and most compendious I. First That this evidence of Miracles is the most proper and convenient to prove the truth of any pretence to Revelation For as for the intrinsick Arguments drawn from the nature and quality of the Revelation they may prove it indeed to be wise and good and holy but how they should prove it to be immediately revealed from God I cannot apprehend For as for the Moral Writings of the Heathen Philosophers they were most of them very good and wise and holy but yet it doth not hence follow that the Authors of them were immediately inspired when they wrote them notwithstanding their goodness they might be and doubtless were the dictates of their own natural reason and so may any other Doctrine how good soever it be and tho the Authors of such Writings may pretend to be inspired yet that is no argument that they are For all that I know they may pretend to it to give credit to their Doctrine or they may think themselves inspired when they are not so that they have no other way to convince me that what they pretend is true but only by giving me some certain sign and token that they are really inspired from above and no sign can reasonably convince me of this but such a one as I have reason to believe God alone did inable them to give me for so long as I have just reason to suspect that the sign which they give me was produced either by their own power or by the power of some other Agent besides God it is no sign at all to me of their being inspired by God. Miracles therefore being the only signs we can reasonably believe are produced by the immediate power of God 't is they alone can indicate a mans being immediately inspired by God. For how can I be assured that what a man saith is immediately revealed to him by God unless God himself give me some sign or token that he is so and how can I know that this or that is a sign or token from God unless it be something so extraordinary and miraculous as that all things considered I may reasonably conclude 't was God alone that produced it I confess indeed a Miracle singly is not sufficient to demonstrate any Doctrine to be of divine Revelation for unless the Doctrine it self be good at least unless it hath no apparent evil in it there is no Miracle whatsoever can prove it to be divine For there is no argument in the World can persuade a reasonable man to believe God against himself but to believe a bad Doctrine to be the Will of God because it is confirmed by Miracles is to believe Gods Power against his Goodness and it is not more certain that God doth will what he confirms by Miracles than that he doth not cannot will iniquity nay of the two I should rather believe a good Doctrine to be from God barely because it is good than that a bad Doctrine is so because it is confirmed by Miracles it being more possible for a wicked Impostor to work a Miracle than for a holy God to will sin But yet the goodness of a Doctrine singly considered and without the confirmation of Miracles is no certain proof that 't is of divine revelation 'T is true those things in any Doctrine which are morally good and founded upon eternal reasons may be demonstrated true by moral arguments without any additional confirmation by Miracles but if the Doctrine contain in it any Proposition that is matter of pure Revelation and cannot be known without it it is hardly possible to prove such a Doctrine true without producing some miraculous sign of its truth and divinity As for instance how can a man know that God hath appointed Jesus to be the Mediator between himself and us which is matter of pure revelation wholly depending on the free will of God unless God himself give us some miraculous sign by which we may know that it is his Will and Appointment And therefore we find that there is no Revelation or pretence of Revelation but what lays claim to this way of confirmation Thus the Mosaick Religion was confirmed by sundry great and stupendous Miracles and even the false Religion of the Heathen pretended to this way of confirmation also for generally they established their superstitious Rites by Magical Tricks and Incantations they conjured their Demons into their consecrated Images and made the liveless Stocks to move and speak they pretended to effect extraordinary Cures by the invocation of their Idols they often raised the Devils they adored by their Charms and Inchantments and made them appear in strange visible shapes to their superstitious Votaries and by these and such like miraculous pretences they introduced all their Idolatrous Ceremonies which is a plain evidence that they thought Miracles to be the most proper and natural arguments of the truth of any Revelation and since the thing is capable of no better way of demonstration it is an unreasonable thing not to be satisfied with this for he who will not believe that a thing which may be is without an impossible proof of its existence is unreasonably